Rare French cylinder Montre à Tact pocket watch circa 1810

Silver Montre Médaillon à Tact watch by Oudin
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Rare French silver cylinder Montre à Tact pocket watch, circa 1810. Movement, signed and numbered J. B. Oudin à Paris, no. 272, with cylinder escapement, plain three arm brass balance, large central barrel with winding sleeve, sleeve for handset adjacent to the barrel. The small offset silver dial, signed and numbered Oudin élève de Mr Breguet à Paris no. 272, has an engine turned finish. It includes a satin finished chapter ring with Roman numerals and an outer minute ring. The blued steel moon hands are set within a polished silver cuvette with apertures for the dial, winding, handset, and regulation.
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The silver case features a front decorated with radiating concentric rings of alternating polished and milled finishes. The case back is similarly designed with a large applied arrow for à tact indication. The engine turned band includes large touch pins, and the piece is completed with a silver pendant and bow. The case is numbered 3149 and bears Paris control marks from 1793, along with the mark P.B.T. beneath a triangle within a lozenge shaped cartouche, denoting Pierre Benjamin Tavernier.
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Diameter: 52 mm
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Signed: Oudin, élève de Mr. Breguet à Paris
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The movement is running but slightly tarnished and dirty. The hour hand is currently out of sync with the time dial. The dial has some light scuffs and scratches, while the surrounding bezel is polished but shows scuffs and scratches, particularly around the centre. The case is tarnished with small nicks and scratches but retains good definition overall.
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Charles Oudin, a talented and innovative watch and clockmaker, was a student of Abraham-Louis Breguet. Oudin excelled in creating watches with the Equation of Time feature and developed a version of this complication that could be integrated into Breguet’s souscription watches. By 1805, he had established his workshop at the Palais Royal, Galerie de Pierre. In 1819, one of Oudin’s Equation of Time watches was showcased at the Paris Exhibition.